Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: PRIDIAN

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pridianus (relating to the previous day),
from pridie (adv. on the day before),
from pri- before + dies a day + -anus (-an)

EXAMPLE
“… This Gann, I take it, has similar likings, for I hear him occasionally at midnight floundering up the stairs (his boots lie dirty in the passage)—floundering, I say, up the stairs, and cursing the candlestick, whence escape now and anon the snuffers and extinguisher, and with brazen rattle disturb the silence of the night. Thrice a−week, at least, does Gann breakfast in bed—sure sign of pridian intoxication; and thrice a−week, in the morning, I hear a hoarse voice roaring for ‘my soda−water.’ How long have the rogues drunk soda−water? …”

From:  A Shabby Genteel Story,
And Other Tales.
By: William M. Thackeray, 1840
How Mrs. Gann received two lodgers.

Word of the Day: SINISTER-HANDED

ETYMOLOGY
from sinister:  from Old French  senestre, sinistre or Latin sinister (left, left-hand)

EXAMPLE
“… That which still makes her mirth to flow,
Is our sinister-handed woe,
Which downwards on its head doth go,
And, ere that it is sown, doth grow.
This makes her spleen contract,
And her just pleasure feast:
For the unjustest act
Is still the pleasant’st jest. …”

From: Lucasta: Posthume Poems
Lucasta Laughing
By Richard Lovelace, a1657

Word of the Day: ASMATOGRAPHER

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek aσµατογράϕος (from ᾀ̑σμα, -µατ– (song, lyric) + -γράϕος writing, writer) + -er

EXAMPLE
” … (Title) 1639 Songs: – A Collection of Original Songs, by Oddibus, Funnybus, Asmatographer to the Court of Comus…”

From: Catalogue of the Singularly Curious, Very Interesting, and Valuable Library
of Edward Skegg,
Arranged by S. Leigh Sotheby, Auctioneer of Literary Property, and Works of Art,
1842

Word of the Day: RABIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin rabiosus (rabid, mad, frenzied, furious), from rabies (rabies) + –osus (-ous)

EXAMPLE
“… Ethelred, languishing in minde and body, Edmond his sonne, surnamed Ironside (to oppose youth to youth) was imployed against this rabious inuador. A Prince worthy of a better time, and had he found faith, had made it so, and deliuered his country at that turne, from the worst of miseries, the conquest by strangers. …”

From: The First Part of the Historie of England
By Samuel Daniel, 1612

Word of the Day: SEGGER

ETYMOLOGY
from segge (to say) + -er

EXAMPLE (for n.1.)
“… As yoe are a lorde most lofsom of lyre
Vndir sir Pilate that lyfis in this empire,
Ȝone segger that callis hymselffe a sire
With tresoure and tene sall we taste hym.
Of yoone losell his bale schall he brewe,
Do trottes on for that traytoure apas
In hast. …”

From: York Mysteries, c1440
The Agony and Betrayal

Word of the Day: SNIFFLER

ETYMOLOGY
from sniffle (vb.) + -er

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Gin this be courting, well I wat ’tis clear,
I gat na sik a teazle this seven year :
Sae ye maun gee your answer now perqueer,
I maunna ilka day be coming here,
To get sic sniflers ; courting’s nae a jest.
Another day like this’ll be my priest.’ …”

From: Helenore: Or the Fortunate Shepherdess, a Pastoral Tale
By Alexander Ross, 1768

Word of the Day: OSCITATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oscitat-, past participial stem of oscitare (to open (as a mouth)), 
also oscitari (to gape, yawn), from os mouth + citare (to move, actuate)

EXAMPLE
“… and if he will but imitate some drowsy people at church, by taking a sternutatory, he will arrive at the close without feeling fatigue or ascribing his heaviness to the writer; There are persons whose physical constitutions are so delicate that mere thoughts of taking snuff, (and medicines generally) produce the same effect as inhaling the powder itself: now, if the imagination of the reader has a similar influence over his system, he can have no disposition to oscitate while finishing the chapter; on the contrary, the greatest obstacle to his progress will arise from a disposition to sneeze. …”

From: Transactions of the Society of Literary and Scientific Chiffonniers;
Being Essays on Primitive Arts In Domestic Life.
The Spoon
By Hab’k O. Westman, 1844
Chapter X, Snuff taken with Spoons

Word of the Day: GAINSTAND

ETYMOLOGY
from gain- (against, in opposition to) + stand (vb.)

EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… Throuch his falsheid and craftynes
He sall flow in to welthynes
The Godlye pepyll he sall noye
By creuell deith, and thame distroye
The kyng of Kyngis, he sall ganestand
Syne be distroyit withouttin hand. …”

From: Ane Dialog Betuix Experience and ane Courteour off the Miserabyll Estait of the Warld
By David Lindsay, 1554